For CPAs, diversity equals survival Empowering more women to lead is a ‘business imperative’ for the profession. Here’s why. BY BILL SHERIDAN More than a decade ago, Lisa Cines tore down one of the CPA profession’s most notorious gender walls.
The bottom line: Women are woefully under-represented in leadership positions throughout the profession.
After spending nearly 20 years moving up the ranks at Aronson and Company (later Aronson LLP) in Rockville, Cines in 2001 was named the firm’s managing officer, making her the first woman in the nation to lead a top 50 accounting firm. She waited eagerly to see which women would follow her through the first cracks in the profession’s glass ceiling.
That’s why the AICPA launched its Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee, which is “committed to the retention and advancement of women in accounting.” The group is focusing its efforts in three areas:
She’s still waiting. In the years since, the number of female executive officers at major firms rose no higher than two. But when Cines left Aronson in 2011 and Krista McMasters – the first and only woman to serve as CEO of a top 50 firm – announced her retirement from CliftonLarsonAllen in April 2013, that number fell back to zero. Zilch. Nada. Today’s top 50 firms are all piloted by men. “We’re stuck,” said Cines, now managing partner of the Rockville office of Dixon Hughes Goodman. “We’re living in the past. We have not been successful yet in making that transformation to a truly diverse profession from a gender or ethnic perspective.” The numbers tell a conflicting story. According to the AICPA, over the past two decades women have accounted for 50 percent of all new CPAs. But only 19 percent of partners in CPA firms nationwide are women, and among executive officers in business and industry, that number falls to just over 14 percent.
6
• EDUCATION AND AWARENESS: The committee’s work here is driven mainly by research, promotion of an “organizational culture shift,” and profiles of female role models. • ADVANCEMENT: Through research, education, operational tools, and direct guidance, the committee hopes to play a role in helping women advance through the profession. • ADVOCACY: The group hopes to empower women by supporting their advancement, working toward a balance between work and home life, and building the business case for improved diversity in the profession. That business case boils down to one word — sustainability. Changing workforce demographics and a “leadership gap” that widens every time a baby boomer retires make one thing clear: The survival of many organizations may depend on the leadership potential that women bring to the table. “The progress of women within the profession is a business imperative significantly tied to organizational sustainability,” the AICPA states.
Then there’s the bottom line itself. Studies conducted by Credit Suisse, the Swedish Corporate Governance Board, Catalyst, and Michigan State researcher Miriam Schwartz-Ziv, to name but a few, have found that companies with more women on their boards of directors routinely outperform their competitors. “Ignoring half the population for places in corporate governance forces companies to play with only half of the deck and miss out on high-potential board members,” reporter Kate Taylor wrote in Forbes. “While this may be unfair to some, it certainly ignores the unique perspective women bring to corporate boards.” The benefits of diverse leadership are obvious, but with the exception of progressive pockets here and there, Cines believes the CPA profession lags far behind the top performers in corporate America. “Progress is being made, but it is so negligible that it is concerning for the profession overall,” said Cines, who serves on the MACPA’s board of directors. “Firms now understand that the numbers are unacceptable, but they have not solved for or truly acknowledge all the unconscious bias that occurs every day. For every few steps forward, there appears to be others that go back.” Others see a bit more progress being made.
“As a young professional entering the workforce 21 years ago, I would have said there was a glass ceiling preventing women from advancing into executive positions,” said Samantha Bowling, the first and only woman to rise to the rank of partner with Garbelman Winslow CPAs, a 65-year-old firm based in Upper Marlboro. “I know that in some industries this is still the STATEMENT